Hiking on the Amalfi Coast: how to walk from Ravello to Amalfi

Hiking on the Amalfi Coast: How to walk from Ravello to Amalfi

If you’re looking for information on how to walk from Ravello to Amalfi, how to hike from Scala to Amalfi, or how to hike from Ravello to Minori, this blog post has all the details you’ll need for hiking around Ravello on the Amalfi Coast, a truly gorgeous corner of the world.

First a few hotel tips if you’re heading to this area – one of the most beautiful regions in Italy.

Where to stay in Ravello: my top hotel picks

I’ve stayed in several hotels in Ravello and these particular Ravello hotels have never let me down. Enjoy!

Nonno Francesco B&B is a cosy home-from-home, with an easy central yet peaceful location. The hotel features a garden, and many rooms have balconies or breathtaking views of the Amalfi coast. Free WiFi and air conditioning. Double rooms from €110.

With panoramic views of the Amalfi coast, La Dolce Vita Ravello offers stylish modern studios and apartments with a private terrace, kitchenette, free Wi-Fi and air conditioning. The beach at Castiglione is 8 km away. Guests can use the property’s barbecue in the garden, or relax on the sun terrace. The Oscar Niemeyer Auditorium is opposite the property and mini-markets and restaurants can be found in the area. Studios with sea view from €230.

I left my heart at Hotel Villa Maria, a family-run hotel with one of the most famous restaurant terraces in Ravello. Some of the rooms have jaw-dropping private terraces with views of the sea. The indoor spaces provide lovely, high-windowed winter options, placing you at the heart of this enchanting hilltop town. Double rooms from €300.

Belmond Hotel Caruso isn’t just a five star hotel – it’s a luxury experience. The infinity pool overlooking Amalfi has one of the best views in the whole of Italy. During the summer, room rates include complimentary boat escursions along the coast as well as free shuttles to Amalfi and Positano. Double rooms from €900.

Hiking on the Amalfi Coast: An introduction for hiking around Ravello

Arriving on the Amalfi Coast is a journey of anticipation. As the bus pulls out of Salerno station, you get your first real glimpse of the sea; sun flickering through palm trees along the broad waterfront. The coach’s engine gives a grunt of expectation as it gains the first metres on the coast’s promontory and slowly, towns appear and recede: Vietri sul Mare, Cetara, Maiori, Minori. Just before the home stretch to Amalfi, I jump down to wait for my connection to Ravello, on a steep bend above the beaches of Castiglione.

It’s baking hot down here, but the second bus takes you into a cloud on the top of a mountain; through dark tunnels; and out onto a straight road with impossible, misty views over the sea. Ravello. You feel like you’ve earned your lunch by the time you get this far; but there’s an even better way to merit that view. The answer, of course, is by walking there.

View from Ravello, towards Maiori

I’m not suggesting you walk all the way from Rome; not even from Salerno or Naples, but if you base yourself in Ravello or Praiano, you can enjoy hiking on the Amalfi Coast and engage with its green hills in a much more immediate way.

Ravello isn’t the highest spot on the coast; that honour goes to Agerola, a village not far away on a different spar of rock. But it is one of the loftiest towns on the peninsula, and in my opinion, the prettiest. Hiking around Ravello is the ideal way to get off the beaten track, too.

Starting from Ravello, or Scala, the town just below, and you can hike to Amalfi, hike to Minori or hike to Maiori, all reachable in under an hour, although you will probably want to allow 90 minutes to get as far as Maiori. The hiking routes around Ravello all involve steep stone steps, stretches of paved and unpaved pathway, and don’t require any special equipment (trainers or walking shoes are advised).

The ruins of St. Eustachio

Hiking from Ravello: how to walk from Ravello, or Scala, to Amalfi

The first walk, hiking from Ravello to Amalfi, requires you to reach the small hamlet directly below Ravello known as Scala. To reach Scala from Ravello, take a bus to Scala or walk down part of the asphalted road under Ravello’s new Auditorium, before finding the steps to Scala.

After you reach Scala, follow signs for the village of Minuta. You’re now in a small piazza with a chapel and fountain and you should take the stone steps that face the coast down towards the ruins of St. Eustachio, a remarkable broken church now open to the sky. Beyond there, the path leads to Pontone, a charming village with a couple of churches and a steep flight of steps into the gorge above Amalfi; you’re now ten minutes from the beach.

Charming Pontone

To hike back up to Ravello from Amalfi, follow the coast road from Amalfi towards the beach of Castiglione, and retrace the first bends taken by the bus that reaches Ravello. Then the stone steps start and you can leave the road. Not all stretches of the pathway are signposted; follow your instinct, and it’s hard to go wrong. It’s a steep ascent and not for the faint-hearted, but eventually brings you out under the gaze of Villa Rondinaia; up some more, and you emerge near Villa Cimbrone in Ravello itself. A truly beautiful route for hiking around Ravello.

How to hike from Ravello to Minori

If you want to walk from Ravello to Minori, it’s also possible to do without maps. An alternative descent, towards Minori, starts from the steps in Ravello just before the Auditorium and winds down to another lovely and unspoilt spot on the sea through the town of Torello.

After Torello, you can turn left, down moss-covered, crumbling steps – a little hazardous – that take you straight into the heart of the town of Minori, or continue forward, past the town cemetery, a prettier route.

If you want to go even further, once you’ve seen Minori, head along the coastal road towards Maiori, the bigger of the twin seaside towns. By that stage, you will undoubtedly want to fling yourself in the sea or just stop for lunch. This time, you will really have earned it. Another famous hike around Ravello – that I didn’t try on this occasion – is the famous Walk of the Gods from Agerola towards Arieno or Positano. Famed for its stunning views, I’m just happy to say – there’s always a next time.

Hi, you need to reach Scala which is the town below Ravello, the bus goes there. Then from the small square in Scala you can walk down the path to Pontone which is well marked. If in doubt ask the locals in Scala where to go.